While All Saints debuts in the BBC daytime schedules next month and could prove to be an obvious contender for the Neighbours crown, it seems Auntie has other plans bubbling away in the soap cauldron.
If today’s Liverpool Daily Post is to be believed, plans are already well advanced to find a possible replacement for the Neighbours come next summer. Former Brookside producer Colin McKeown has told the Liverpool newspaper that his company, LA Productions, is in advanced talks with the Beeb to produce a soap based in Liverpool.
While I’m sure McKeown, who has also served as writer on Emmerdale and Grange Hill and produced Liverpool One, is positive of his facts, this looks like more smoke than fire. While I relish the prospect of a possible new soap set in a Liverpool, I suspect McKeown is talking up a bit of publicity for a possible independent project. Certainly the naming of Jimmy McGovern as an executive script writer/producer sounds unlikely (although not totally beyond the realms of possibility.
I’m also not sold on the concept that the Beeb are looking to commission a 20-week run of two episodes a week. If the BBC is going to commit to a new daytime soap, then it really must commit. I’m talking five days a week, for an initial six months at the very least. In the current climate, nothing less will really cut it.
I hope the LA Productions project comes off, I really do. The more new drama, the better as far as I’m concerned, but I suspect this is far from being a done deal at this stage.
For my money, Doctors is still favourite for having a spring clean and being bumped up to premiere daytime soap on BBC1, with an evening repeat alongside.
Of course, I could be way off the mark and this time next year we might be sitting down to the return of Eldorado. Or Albion Market. Shudder…
Mark Wright: Do you actually REMEMBER Albion Market or Eldorado? If so, you must have a very quiet life...
I do indeed remember them - I worked at Granada Tours for a while, and across the road, which is the now the V&A hotel (IIRC), was the old Albion Market set. And *everybody* remembers Elodrado!
Yes, the OLD Albion Market set - the series was over a couple of years before the Granada Tours even began (Albie ended 1986).
If you're really interested, I've found this -
http://80sactual.blogspot.com/2005/05/albion-market.html
Must admit, I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Perhaps. And I didn't watch Eldorado. Now I'm getting older, I wouldn't mind catching up op on a few of these past TV "glories"...
I thought that Albion Market was really good towards the end. Those MASSIVE SHOULDER PADS (men as well as women)!! Those blonde highlights! Men in pink trousers. AND Helen Shapiro! Great!
Come off it, Mark - Albion Market was FABULOUS!